Many conservatives say they are willing to sacrifice some cuts if they can win on social policy. | AP Photos
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“If there’s a clear path forward in defunding Planned Parenthood, that’s the primary issue,” said Tony Perkins, president of the FRC. “Our view is it needs to be done sooner rather than later.”

Perkins, who said he has spoken to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) about the issue, understands “the leadership is balancing many different issues.” Pence, a former member of House GOP leadership, has spoken to a host of conservative groups, including FRC, Focus on the Family, SBA List, and Concerned Women for America.

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After the Senate rejected both the House Republican and Senate Democratic visions for a seven-month spending bill Wednesday afternoon, a second short-term bill is expected to hit the House floor next week. Aside from the possible inclusion of the D.C. abortion rider, House Republicans say they expect most of the social policy to be left off for now.

And that’s just fine with some Republican lawmakers — even a good number of social conservatives.

Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), who supports the riders, said he believes the social policy distracts from the $52 billion gap between Senate Democrats and House Republicans on how much to spend.

“That gives [Democrats] too much of an excuse to say no,” Terry said. “In the long-term you can have them in there … I’d like to do it later in the process.”

But social conservatives, inside and outside Congress, say they want new social policy riders attached to each successive stopgap spending bill — and that they won’t wait much longer on the big items.

“Gotta stay,” said Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), when asked about the banning of money for Planned Parenthood. “Yeah, for me they have to stay. This is a very important thing. It’s about being a good steward of American taxpayer dollars.”

When asked how it complicates Congress’s pathway to passing the bill, West replied plainly: “It doesn’t complicate it for me.”

“The will of the people spoke,” he said. “It came out of the House and that’s the people’s voice.”

Rep. John Campbell, a California Republican who has become an outsized conservative voice during the budget debate, said he’s concentrated more narrowly on the bottom-line figure.

“I think that the major objective is to reduce the amount of spending. A secondary objective is what gets spent within what’s left. I do think though – the Planned Parenthood thing, from a fiscal standpoint, $346 million to a private organization that’s doing this stuff,” Campbell said. “Regardless of whether you agree with what they’re doing or not doing, why are we doing that given that we’re as close to a fiscal crisis as the country is.”

Rep. Darrell Issa, another California Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committeee, said he’d settle for lesser cuts not for riders, but for more structural change to spending “that in the long run saves you more money.”

Perkins says GOP leaders have demonstrated so far that they are committed to following through, but suggested that their rank-and-file will keep them to it one way or the other.

“There is a sense that everybody wants to work with the leadership,” Perkins said. “But there’s also a strong desire that not just in word, but in the perception, that those members are keeping their pledge to voters.”

Readers' Comments (123)

“The will of the people spoke. It came out of the House and that’s the people’s voice,” said Republican West, explaining his commitment to defund Planned Parenthood of federal monies. What West fails to say is not one Republican candidate ran an anti-Planned Parenthood political ad in the midterm campaigns, so how is it "the will of the people"? To further say that anything that comes out of the House is "the people's voice" is a fundamental narcissistic mistake politicians never seem to tire of making. A lot of crap comes out of the House that stinks beyond words and disgusts Americans -- large majorities of them. Republicans are overreaching already. It's a compulsion -- they can't stop themselves. To get concessions from unions to balance the budget is one thing; to take away fundamental American rights is another. Republicans ran on jobs and spring is nearly here without Republicans offering a single jobs bill. Republicans don't want more jobs, which is why they are busy doing all they can to destroy state and federal jobs, too. If not more careful, West and his fellow Republicans may discover the will of the people in crushing defeats in 2012.

the GOP has gone tone deaf, they are ignoring the will of the people who in all recent polling have placed JOBS as the #1 issue they want addressed. that's #1 above cutting spending... and even on that front, the majority of americans want tax cuts for the wealthy ended, the cap on income subject to FICA raised. the GOP would do well to remember their own admonitions to democrats on the consequences of ignoring the people.

There is a war in this country and it's been going on for fifty years. The leftists want to loot the public treasury for their own pet programs and we folks on the right want these socialists to get their hands out of our pockets.

Every supposedly "social" dispute comes down to the same thing - leftists want no end to their "right" to put unrestricted demands on the taxpayer and the the people on the right, who generate nearly all the wealth in this country, patiently try to point out that they've bankrupted the taxpayers, the states, and the entire country and they can no longer continue to spend like drunken sailors.

Oops - my apologies to drunken sailors - after all, they only spend THEIR OWN money. Leftists want to spend other people's money.

There is a war in this country and it's been going on for fifty years. The leftists want to loot the public treasury for their own pet programs and we folks on the right want these socialists to get their hands out of our pockets.

the "war" that is now joined by american voters is one being waged aginst privatized profits and socialized debt. watch, listen and learn in these coming days you will then know what a real grassroots uprising looks like. the demonstrations breaking out across northern tier states will be coming to a community near you.

* Socialists want to use taxpayer money to fund abortions. The right wants people to use their own money to finance their own abortions.

* Socialistss want to use taxpayer money to fund Planned Parenthood. The right wants Planned Parenthood to fund itself.

* Socialists want to use taxpayer money to fund everyone's health care. The right wants people to fund their own health care.

Now all of these have seveal things in common:

1) They're about money. Socialists want to use taxpayer money to fund their favorite programs. Republicans want the socialists to get their hands out of our pockets.

2) They're about freedom. Socialsits want the freedom to pillage the taxpayer. Taxpayers want the freedom to spend their own money as they see fit.

3) They're about despotism. Socialists want a powerful, overbearing central government that has the power to tap anyone's income at any time for any reason. Taxpayers want to be left alone.

4) They're about common sense. Socialists want to continue spending without regard to whether we have the money or not. Republicans, taxpayes and tea partiers want to restore sanity to the budget. You can't spend what you don't have.

Foxfan lets look at how poorly informed you are since you apparently watch Fox.

* For starters, go back to 8th grade civics and learn what a socialist is.

* Federal law already prohibits spending on abortion in any way. Republicans and Democrats both voted to assure that last year. Maybe you weren't paying attention. It's a fact. Cut and dry. Planned parenthood uses $0 in government funds to perform abortions.

* Obamacare, as you so brilliantly call it, does not fund health care for even 1/4 of Americans. You seem to be confused, because the rallying cry of the right is that its so horrible and unfair that the government is going to require people to pay for it themselves. Please try to keep your arguments straight here, you're getting all crossed up again.

Now, all of your incorrect facts have several things in common

1. You're about paranoia. You see government spending where it has been specifically forbidden by statue. Don't ask me how this occurs. Maybe you didn't read the bill.

2. They apparently think that freedom involves telling someone what can occur inside their own body. At least I can change my pants. Last time I checked my daughters can't change their womb. Your version of freedom is sick and scary.

3. You're about having it both ways at once. You make all the money, but you're bankrupt. You want to reduce the debt, while giving everyone a tax break. You're like the guy who wants to get rich by agreeing to cut his pay in half. This is probably why you cry so much and blame Obama for things.

4. I've got nothing on common sense. If you call the contradictions and lies above "common sense," then my God. I'm speechless.

Pay close attention to all of these disputes, whether it's about Obamacare, the dispute in Wisconsin, global warming or whatever. They all come down to the same thing. When you strip away the rhetoric - they're all about MONEY.

And it's the same issue - the left wants unrestricted access to the public treasury to force taxpayers to fund their pet projects, and the taxpayers want to be left alone.

All the rhetoric about it being fair to tax the rich is just that - rhetoric. The socialists just want more money and will use any excuse to get it. The rich already pay more, much more. The appetite of the socialists for more money and more power knows no bounds. Nearly half of this year's budget is BORROWED MONEY - a burden that our children and grandchildren will be forced to fund for their entire lives.

If the left wants these screwball projects, let them fund them with their own money. Pay for your own abortion. Fund Palnned Parenthood yourselves. Pay for NPR yourself. You want to end lumbering on a piece of property - buy it with your own money. I'm done with paying for your screwy projects. I've been Taxed Enough Already.

We've been generating all the wealth and you marxists have been taking it all. We've had it. We've been taxed enough already. We want our money back and we plan to get it.

Wisconsin is only the beginning.

Defunding Obamacare is only the beginning.

Defunding NPR is only the beginning.

Stay tuned - there's MUCH MORE coming.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go to work now. I'm sure there are a lot of you public union folks lounging around in Wisconsin, or welfare folks waiting for their next check, or women waiting for their taxpayer-funded abortion who depend on my income to pay for it all.

Pay close attention to all of these disputes, whether it's about Obamacare, the dispute in Wisconsin, global warming or whatever. They all come down to the same thing. When you strip away the rhetoric - they're all about MONEY.

* Socialists want to use taxpayer money to fund abortions. The right wants people to use their own money to finance their own abortions.

* Socialistss want to use taxpayer money to fund Planned Parenthood. The right wants Planned Parenthood to fund itself.

* Socialists want to use taxpayer money to fund everyone's health care. The right wants people to fund their own health care.

Now all of these have seveal things in common:

1) They're about money. Socialists want to use taxpayer money to fund their favorite programs. Republicans want the socialists to get their hands out of our pockets.

2) They're about freedom. Socialsits want the freedom to pillage the taxpayer. Taxpayers want the freedom to spend their own money as they see fit.

3) They're about despotism. Socialists want a powerful, overbearing central government that has the power to tap anyone's income at any time for any reason. Taxpayers want to be left alone.

4) They're about common sense. Socialists want to continue spending without regard to whether we have the money or not. Republicans, taxpayes and tea partiers want to restore sanity to the budget. You can't spend what you don't have.

LMAO!!! fan perhaps but you're no glen beck... come back when you have some chalkboards

Hey Foxfan, turn off the boob tube and look up corporate tax rates and tax rates on the rich. They're lower than they were under Reagan right now, and they're lower than they have been in over 50 years.

You wanna talk about rhetoric? You just made four posts full of it. The rich do NOT pay more, much more, they pay less, much LESS.

Do you even have any idea how low the tax rate on capitol gains is? Do you know the wealthy make over 80 percent of their money on capitol gains?

They're taxed at roughly half the rate of the average working man in America.

Do I want to tax them more? You're damn right I do, because I think a man who goes out and works to earn for his family deserves to keep a higher percentage of his pay than a guy who drives a porche to earn a living for himself.

Also, the left wants more power? Which party is even insisting on telling us what to do with our bodies, even if telling us what to do with out bodies sabotages the effort to reduce the deficit?

Buy land for lumbering with our own money?

You mean buy it from the federal government? It's the right that allows lumbering on federal property. They give my trees and your trees away to big business in exchange for campaign donations.

I'm sick of paying for your screwy record corporate profits, and having my natural resources used to make the tissues you cry in.

Also, Foxfan, I'd rather the left put its hand in my pocket than the right put its hand in my womb.

This nothing but more of the screwy leftist rhetoric we've come to expect from you folks. Abortion is legal everywhere. Very few people dispute your right to kill your own baby if that is your choice. But you can darn well do it with your own money. Leave me out of it.

One mitigating thing about abortions. The right people are being aborted - future liberals.

It contained and outright prohibition against federal funds being used on abortion, or on anything even connected to an abortion. Federal funds can't even be used for insurance policies that cover abortion if the policyholder pays for the abortion coverage separatey, out of his or her own pocket.

I can't believe you didn't read the bill.

I'm going to plan some protests to shout about how you didn't read the bill. I'm outraged. You can plan on hearing more about this. MUCH MORE. You're failure to read the bill is only the beginning. I think you haven't read anything, ever!@

Well of course it's made even worse when it's borrowed money being misspent!

duh!

Going into debt for this sort of spending is even more misguided, just going to show that a bad situation can always be made worse.

correction; there is nothing more misguided, smacks more of class warfare than borrowing money to give tax cuts to people who don't need them while attempting to disallow access to health care for 15 million children, wanting to use tax payer money to send rich kids to private schools and making villains of public school teachers for the mess created by NCLB.

Ok let's get this straight. The House represents the people of America but not as a body. Each member is responsible for representing his/her district but not necessarily the wishes of the nation as a whole. Besides that we live in a REPUBLIC not a democracy. Democracy is mob rule or legislating by referendum. In a republic the citizens elect people to represent them and their areas. I don't expect my Rep. , much as I can't stand her, to pay attention to any polls except the local ones.